Posts tagged “vintage car”

It’s registered in her name. In fact, if I got the story right, Aunt Linda is the one who negotiated and bought this beauty at a car show in Ohio.

What a jewel. Look at the pristine condition.

1953 Ford Crestline Victoria V8- 1953 was the50th anniversary of Ford, I read. “Power steering and power brakes were being added to this line”.

This model is a year younger than me!

I was up in the neighborhood Friday night and I called and asked if they were eating supper. “Not yet”, said Uncle Frank.

So I went to photograph the car but alas, it’s in the garage as it’s getting to be winter weather here.

And it was suppertime. I did get a few detail shots inside the garage. A big pot of vegetable soup was shared with me and Steve and as I drove us home, I promptly forgot all the little details about the car and should have written them down.

Thank goodness Linda had a photo . Here is the photo that Aunt Linda took of the new aquisition. She calls the color salmon.

Aunt Linda had photographed the car another day and was able to send it to me via her phone right then and there.

In the garage

Dual V8 Exhaust

A super clean engine

Uncle Frank Closing the hood

Victoria

Exhaust V8

Original interior

White walls

Just put a Mustang GT 380 engine in

Originally posted in 2011. Uncle Frank with his 1955 Ford Pickup – see the new engine in gallery above

After sipping coffee in Squirrel Hill with a friend, catching up on the last few months of our lives, I headed home via Schenley Park. NOT!

Everything was blocked off with white sawhorses. I found a parking spot and strolled around, chatting with the women at the gate letting the trucks and car trailers into the park, realizing that this has been going on for all these years but I’d not experienced it in the 25 years I’ve lived in Pittsburgh. The 32nd Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh where the cars are raced right on the streets.

from their website

“The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix’s mission is to produce a world-class vintage racing event to raise funds that help provide residential care, treatment and support for children and adults with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities through the Autism Society of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Valley School.”

I learned a lot in a short amount of time, walking down the road, talking with car owners and pit crew or significant others. I met a volunteer who is a “rope tower” during the races. No one wants his services but I understand some will need to be towed.

A nice couple from Milwaukee with a really cool MG that they toured in England with 89 other MG owners. I’m always fascinated how people get into different interests and activities in their lives, why people collect things, their hobbies. One man had a former show dog, Vivian ( or perhaps Vivien, sorry) who was a distinctive English bull dog. He said showing dogs, racing cars, there are a lot of similarities.

I can tell you that the people I talked to are making themselves happy by participating in this sport, caring and restoring their cars, and being part of an eclectic group with passion for what they are investing themselves in.

Meet Luke. From the North Hills. He has worked on this Lotus for 5 years. Check out the humps he created so he can fit into the car as he is 6’2″. He shared the photos of the work he accomplished, what it looked like when he started and it is amazing. When his mother was expecting him in two short months, she drove demo laps at the VGP. His father was there offering support and advice, cheering him on. He told me how there was a meeting for the drivers and then they would walk the course. He even invited me to ride in the Lotus at the Charity ride but Saturday I am shooting a wedding. I looked in and down and wondered if I would fit or if several people would have had to extricate me from the seat.

Luke taking time to show his Lotus photos and explain how he rebuilt it to a young man who is going to be a seventh grader at Colfax this fall. This almost seventh grader been coming to the Vintage Grand Prix on his bike for the past three years and has a real interest in cars.

Lotus Interior

Luke and his dad

Meet Rich. Drove in from Denver, Colorado. His wife flew in from a business trip in New York so they are at the VGP for the first time. He races cars after an experience with an avalanche while extreme skiing.

He explained a lot to me (which I am hesitant to write for fear it will be inaccurate) but his 912 (which he got off Craig’s List) uses gas without ethanol. NOTE: A Porsche 912 NOT 911.

Inside the trailer that holds the car.

You should hear his engine when he fires it up! Porsche 912 1967

Here’s Rich replacing the jet due to the low altitude here.

The jet

Rich has installed an automatic fire extinguisher as a safety measure. If the temperature rises above 155 degrees it will go off.

I thought it would be fun for Rich to meet Luke (turns out they will be competitors in the same class) as they were both first time racers in this particular event so Rich drove his car down the road and I followed.

Here are Rich and Luke

And here’s Chris. Chris is from Verona, PA. He has restored cars for years. But this is his first race. You can just tell he has put a lot of love into his car.

MGB GT 1968 Under two litre class

And here is Richard Barnes the Competition Director and the man who introduced me to Rich

Yes, there are female drivers. Here are some competitors lined up to register.

Without realizing I caught a shot of Lauren in line at registration. She is “paddocking” with Luke but wasn’t there when I was doing all the pictures. See edit below with addition of Lauren and the 1956 Turner she drives. Thanks Luke B for the photograph below.

A couple more cars so you can see the variety participating

Driving by some of the open wheel cars. A nice man from Toronto who is on a Pit Crew explained all about the open wheel construction and the rear engines. Another man with a couple of Sprites offered to get me some contact information so I could share the photos.

When I left there were still cars arriving

Late addition courtesy of Luke B the Lotus Owner Saturday 9:00 AM

After reading the post Luke B sent me the following photograph of another first time driver

Here’s what he said

I saw you caught a photo of my friend Lauren at registration. It’s too bad you didn’t get a chance to meet her – she’s paddocked with us now, but I think that was after you left. Not only is she one of only a few female drivers this weekend and one of the few young drivers, but she’s another local entrant and, like me, it’s her first time racing here. Here’s a photo of her and the 1956 Turner she races:

And while we were there I met Dave who photographs cars and prints the images on T -shirts and who does Aerial Photography with his JDI helicopter-like drone camera system. WOW. You can’t go higher than 400 feet and you have to take it slow.

Getting it up and off the ground. It uses a GPS

Like a hobby toy airplane, Dave at the controls.

Looks like a UFO to me

Back to earth and then to the van to print

What a setup Dave had in his van

WOW, it is amazing.

Dave explains his display of a big show. Tonight’s show was small cause people were worried it might rain.

Dave was generous and took my photo with Donald. I think Donald was planning on adding a JDI hover drone camera to his wish list. Looks like a serious toy.

Steve and I ventured out Saturday afternoon and what started out as a gray, dark day became perfect

First, we met George and his 1973 VW Thing. He came when the weather was good as his vehicle has no roof! Made in West Germany and customized in Redondo CA, he bought it in Indiana and told me his goal is to have every car he thought was cool when he was a kid. He has five cars and I should have asked him what the other four were but that question will have to wait for the Oktoberfest Car Show at the old VW Factory in Westmorelandnext Sunday, October 14th.

Jason Sauer of Most Wanted Fine ArtGallery was the host of the event and showed me his demolition car named DOA and “that’s what it is” he said,”Dead!” That is why it was covered with a white sheet!

Parts of it have been torched out of the body and grace his Art Gallery walls and there is even a car pieces wind chime hanging from the tin ceiling of the gallery. He was the host for the day. He was at an event in Texas and had Xerox Most Wanted signs and people posed for the piece you see on the gallery wall. All the photos are on the trunk of a car, hanging on the gallery wall and the participants tagged themselves on FB.

You can see why they made the Pixar movie CARS. Two eyes and a nose and a mouth are perfect and lend themselves to being humanized, animated and given the ability to talk.

Just in case you need a little something to keep you busy on weekends.

It’s only a mile from my house and I keep seeing her look at me when I drive by. Cars are female, right? Like boats? (Except in the movie CARS there are a lot of guy cars) But do you still hear comments like, “She’s a real beaut!” or ” I got her up about seventy on the straightaway.” when referring to a car. How did boats and cars get designated female and is that something old fashioned that is totally out of style? Here’s some debate I was able to find on the subject at English Forums.

The blog has been a real family effort since I have been on vacation. My DIL drove by slowly so I could shoot the giant flag and Mustang on the lawn. This is one of those 100+ days we had in early July. Already we are past mid July! Oh my.

Now it’s drought conditions around here so the lawns are more brown. The thunderstorms just don’t provide enough precipitation